A "deluxe" Australian cabaret on the Queen's jubilee, shows on tabloid hacking, and a mass-participation burlesque celebrating the Olympics have again confirmed the Edinburgh festival fringe's thirst for topicality.

This year's fringe festival has another significant boast: it is again the largest programme ever staged, with 2,695 shows, and its geographical influence has grown even larger and more ambitious. As well as drawing in one of England's largest regional theatre companies – Northern Stage, which is occupying a full venue on its own – the fringe is setting up camp for the first time in its rival city, Glasgow. It is also growing in scale within Edinburgh itself. Northern Stage, based in Newcastle, will take over a vacant church in the Edinburgh district of Stockbridge for the entire 24-day festival.

Rich Peppiatt, the former tabloid journalist and whistleblower, stages a one-man show entitled One Rogue Reporter, while the former minister and MP Tony Benn will appear at the Assembly Rooms for two days in a Q&A event called Will and Testament, which previews a forthcoming documentary. In it, Benn reminisces about getting a recent death threat: "I haven't had one in ages, so I was chuffed."

Somewhat different in tone, the burlesque event will, say the promoters, bring together 2,000 festivalgoers for a "night of Olympic-themed fun" at a show called Club Noir Burlesque: the Games, which will take place at a concert venue in the city. The comedian and publican Al Murray will stage the Guv's Olympic pub quiz, while the Australian cabaret La Clique Royale will put on The Queen's Selection – a "sexy, funny dangerous" show that will be one of several linked to the jubilee – in a new, tented venue that will close down George Street, in the centre of New Town.

Alongside 45 productions involving Shakespeare in some form, comedy is once again the most dominant genre: it takes up 36% of this year's shows, with 964 performances. There are 757 theatre productions, 357 music shows and, for the first time, a poetry strand, with 41 performances in the new spoken-word section of the programme.

The fringe is also launching a fresh social media initiative with the free audio site SoundCloud. All 2,695 shows will be able to post audio clips and audience reactions online, alongside a new mass-marketing operation on Facebook.

After defying its own predictions that competition from the Olympics, combined with the global financial downturn, could result in a 10% fall in productions, the programme has grown by 6% above last year's record number of shows. It now covers 279 venues across the city. Organisers believe ticket sales could set a new record, after an official tie-up with the London Olympics marketing arm and the subsidy of a number of productions by the Cultural Olympiad arts season.

Kath Mainland, the fringe chief executive, was cautious about firmly predicting another record box office, but said: "The fringe is an amazing thing. It's been around a while. We all love it and we all think we know to expect from it. But every year, it reinvents itself, it shakes itself up and delivers a slightly different proposition."

Councillor Donald Wilson, lord provost of Edinburgh, said: "It's clear from the sheer size of this year's programme, even in the face of the world recession, that the fringe remains resilient. The record number of shows on offer illustrates the fringe's enduring strength and appeal, both to performers and those of us who are sitting in the audience."

In a striking admission, Mainland said ticket sales to visitors from Glasgow accounted for just 2.5% of the total sales each year, compared to 22% for visitors from London.

Having previously ignored evidence that Glaswegians rarely travel to fringe events, the festival is to open a box office in one of the city's largest railway stations, as well as running cut-price ticket promotions with two of Glasgow's largest tabloids and the rail firm ScotRail.